DISCOVERIESH
oward Carter’s
sensational 1922
discovery of King
Tutankhamun’s
treasure-filled
tomb sparked a fascina-
tion with all things ancient
Egyptian across Europe and
the United States.
Hopes were high that
more exciting discover-
ies were coming, not least
among the archaeologists
working in sites across
Egypt. A spirit of intense
rivalry marked relations
among this group of largely
Western scholars, who
all jockeyed for the most
promising sites while jeal-
ously monitoring their
competitors’ progress.
From the early 1900s, the
Giza plateau, site of Egypt’sthree iconic pyramids, was
being systematically exca-
vated by an international
group of scholars. A part of
this vast terrain fell to the
American archaeologist
George Reisner. On Febru-
ary 2, 1925, Reisner’s pho-
tographer, Mohammedani
Ibrahim, was working near
the Great Pyramid, erected
by Pharaoh Khufu in the
mid-third millennium b.c.
Ibrahim looked down and
noticed his tripod was
resting on a white layer of
plaster, possibly the top of
a structure hidden below.The boss had to be in-
formed, but there was one
problem: Reisner was, at
that moment, not in Egypt,
but in Boston, carrying
out his duties as profes-
sor of Egyptology at Har-
vard University. His team
started digging in his ab-
sence and found an irreg-
ularly cut, narrow shaft
that went down 85 feet. It
was filled with rubble. This
sign was a strong indication
that they had discovered a
tomb—but since Giza had
been extensively looted
over thousands of years, the
chances of an intact burial
were very low.
On Saturday, March 7, as
Reisner was preparing his
Monday-morning lecture,
thousands of miles away his
team finally excavated the
full shaft and were awe-
struck by what they found.
T. R. D. Greenlees recorded
the moment in his diary:At 3:30 p.m. it was ob-
served that the rock sur-
face on the south... fell
away at an angle, and
immediately afterwards
the top of the door to a
chamber was revealed.In 1925 a royal grave from one of Egypt’s earliest dynasties was
found—intact—in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.Giza’s Untouched
Royal Tomb
EGYfEGYEGYPTPTTombHeteHTombetepherpherofofeses
at Gat GizaizaJanuary 1926
After nearly a year’s
delay, Reisner leads his
team into the tomb.
They begin to classify
its fragile grave goods.April 1926
Based on an inscription
found in the tomb,
its owner is revealed:
Hetepheres, mother of
Pharaoh Khufu.Reisner opens the
tomb’s sarcophagus
and finds it empty.
The fate of the queen
remains a mystery.February 1925 March 1927
Reisner’s team
begins excavation of
a tomb at Giza, but
Reisner orders work
halted in March.ARCHAEOLOGIST’S SKETCH OF THE GRAVE GOODS IN HETEPHERES’S TOMB, 1926
ALAMY/ACITHE INTERIOR of
Hetepheres’s tomb in
Giza, near Cairo, was
packed with grave goods
when it was first seen
by George Reisner in
January 1926. Water had
damaged many of the
objects, but several items
were later painstakingly
reconstructed.
MUSTAPHA ABU EL-HAMD/ MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON